1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an improved retail process and apparatuses for putting customized marking devices, commonly called rubber stamps, in the hands of a customer.
2. Background of the Invention
In the mid 19th century, a method of making a rubber printing die was developed. When mounted on a wooden block with a handle, together termed a mount, and pressed against a pad containing ink, it became practical to mark or write a message many times without a printing press. Identical wooden mounts were made automatically in large quantities. However, except for standard legends, e.g., PAID, the die on each stamp must be individually tailored for each customer. This is a unique requirement in a simple mass production product. Over 100 years ago, it was found to be more economical to make batches of 20 to 100 individual dies on a single sheet rather than make one die at a time. The sheet is cut with scissors and the dies are glued to mounts by hand. To complete the stamp, an index card that duplicates the text on the die is affixed to the mount and usually covered with a transparent plastic sheet or lens. This process has remained to the present day.
There are three main methods for producing rubber stamp dies. Today, these are carried out by about 4,000 small finishing shops with two to ten employees scattered around the country. In the original process, cold printing type is set in a bed of paper-mache that is then heated to form an accurate negative. This negative is filled with uncured rubber. Heat and pressure are applied to vulcanize the rubber to a strong elastomeric sheet of dies. Although the dies produce an excellent print, only a few shops continue to use this system as it is very labor intensive.
Currently, the most popular is the photopolymer method. Typically, an 8xc2xdxc3x9711 inch photonegative is filled with text (or graphics) from as many dies that will fit. This is used with UV light to illuminate the front of a planar cavity filled with a liquid photopolymer while the entire back is illuminated. Where exposed, the liquid turns into a strong elastomeric rubber leaving a solid back and a front with solid text. The liquid between the rubber text is washed away.
About eight to ten years ago, a method that uses a medium power carbon-dioxide laser engraver was introduced. Under computer control, a relatively large sheet of rubber (approximately 97 square inches) is engraved with the die information for as many dies as will fit. Adoption of this method has been retarded by the high price of the engraving apparatus, $20,000 to $50,000, but the cost is offset by the ability to engrave metal plaques and have less chemical wastes and be less labor intensive than the photopolymer method. The disadvantage of this method is that it takes 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the text, to engrave one sheet.
FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art process by which an end customer can obtain an individualized stamp using a laser engraver. (The photopolymer method is substantially the same save for the details of producing the type die.) First, a mount manufacturer, of which there are about a dozen large highly automated ones in the country, makes mounts 101 without dies attached and ships them 102 to a finisher. The finisher keeps a separate inventory of unfinished mounts and rubber sheets 103. A customer 100 orders a stamp and the finisher records the data 104. In some cases, the customer will order directly from the finisher, while in others, an order may be placed through an intermediary such as an office supply store. The finisher collects orders until enough are on hand to make an economical batch 105. When these are obtained, data is entered into a computer 106 that controls the laser engraver to imprint the data in the rubber sheets 107. After engraving, the sheets are cut 108 and affixed to the mounts 109. An index card is made and mounted 110 and covered with a lens 111. The last step is to match the completed stamp to the order and ship it or set it aside for pick-up 112.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, there is a time delay, t1, between ordering a stamp and receiving it that depends on where the customer places their order and what method is used to make the dies. If ordered through an office supply store, t1=several days. Some finishers, using the photopolymer method, promise an in by 10:00 am, out by 3:00 pm service, so that t1=5 hours. A customer is, most likely, entirely unaware of the process by which a stamp is produced. However, the time delay is hard to miss. For business customers, stamp requirements are important enough so that the time delay is tolerated. For consumers for whom purchase of a stamp is more discretionary, the time delay probably causes the stamp making industry to lose considerable sales. Very few consumers purchase individualized rubber stamps.
The other aspect of the process that a customer notices is errors in the finished stamp die. Errors usually occur at the data entry step 106 and occur often enough to be a nuisance.
From the finisher""s standpoint, the process requires a number of manual steps including: the recording of data from the customer, the inputting of that data into a computer, the cutting of individual type dies from a sheet after each batch is formed, selecting the appropriate stamp from inventory, mounting individual type dies on stamp bodies, printing and mounting index cards on the stamp bodies, identifying the finished stamp with the order, and delivery to the appropriate customers. Each of these steps introduces the possibility of errors creeping in. For instance, if a data entry is incorrect, the type die is incorrectly cut from the sheet, or is misaligned when mounted on the stamp body, the stamp is generally not salvageable and the finishing shop must start from scratch, waiting for a sufficient number of stamp orders to fill another sheet before making a replacement.
Several studies of end user preferences made by the Marking Device Industry Association have overwhelmingly shown that print quality, appearance, durability and convenience of purchase are always more important that price. It would seem that more progress would have been made with respect to convenience of purchase, even if the price were slightly higher.
Given that the process illustrated in FIG. 1 is a century old, one might assume that the stamp industry lacks innovative talent. However, in that time, marking stamps have been the subject of a large number of improvement patents on stamp articles and methods of making them. Many of these have been implemented so that the stamp of 1999 bears little resemblance to its 1899 predecessor. However, in order to reduce the time delay, errors, and labor costs, improvements to the process illustrated in FIG. 1 are required.
One of the improvements in stamps themselves is the development of the self-inking stamp. Since this invention is directed primarily to solving problems related to old fashioned rubber stamps and self-inkers, details of self-inker construction are pertinent. An exemplary self-inking marking device may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,432,281, issued Feb. 21, 1984, to Wall et al., incorporated herein by reference. In summary, these employ a simple ingenious mechanism comprising a top outer casing, a bottom casing inside, springs tending to separate the casings, and a platen on which is affixed a rubber stamp known as a xe2x80x9ctype die.xe2x80x9d An axle runs down the center of the platen on the side opposite the marking surface and engages a slot in the bottom casing. Springs normally keep the bottom and top casings separated with the marking surface contacting an ink pad inside the top casing. When the top casing is pushed down on the bottom casing, the axle is forced down the slot, but an indent in the bottom casing engages the platen and rotates it by 180 degrees so that the marking surface faces whatever is below the bottom end of the bottom casing. For storage convenience, tabs in the bottom casing can be used to xe2x80x9clock downxe2x80x9d the platen with the marking surface at a position slightly above the bottom of the bottom casing. Releasing the tabs causes the marking surface to travel back up to the ink pad where the marking die normally rests and is pressing firmly against the ink pad for a fresh supply. Since the casings and platen can be made of plastic, the retail cost of even custom stamps ranges from as little as $10.00 for small marking surface sizes of about 0.5 square inches to about $60.00 for a 5 square inch size.
It should be noted that there are two other types of stamps that have been developed. The first uses a stencil covering an ink supply pad. The stencil is a thin film, usually of plastic, that, through a number of processes, has holes created in it corresponding to the desired text. When pressed down, ink is transferred through the holes to make a print. These have been available for many years, but none have proven commercially successful for several reasons. They are somewhat fragile and have a relatively short life. With some versions, the print quality is not good enough, especially if the surface is uneven or the stamp is not held perfectly flat against the surface. With other versions, the cost of the mount is too high.
The second, and more popular type, is the pre-inked stamp. Similarly to the UV-cured photopolymer stamp, heat is used to cure an ink containing gel on a back side and text on a marking side to form a stamp pad. These are less fragile than the stencil stamp, but are difficult to make. Over curing the gel will cause all the ink to run out, but under curing the gel causes it to wash away. They also require special inks that tend to bleed through ordinary paper.
In short, the self-inker type has, by far, the largest share of the market.
Accordingly, a major object of the present invention is to provide a retail process wherein a customer can order an individualized rubber stamp and receive a finished working stamp in a conveniently short period of time such as ten minutes or, more conveniently, five minutes or less. Another object is to reduce the manual labor and resulting errors in finished stamps. Still another object is to provide apparatuses with relatively low capital costs that can be used to carry out steps in the process.
In one embodiment of the invention, these objects are realized in a process wherein a customer, in a retail point-of-sale setting, with or without operator assistance, inputs data to a computer and confirms the accuracy and layout. After this step, an operator places a selected stamp, finished in all respects except for engraving and affixing an index card, in a special purpose laser engraver to engrave the type die. As an alternative or addition, the computer causes a printer to print the index card and this is used to check the data input and later affixed to the stamp.
Although not essential, the almost finished stamps should preferably have type dies affixed by high-speed, automated machines, so that the mounts are completely assembled and no further assembly operations arc required. If not available, part of this objective can be realized by obtaining blank type dies pre-cut by machine and affixing them by hand.
The present invention utilizes a novel special purpose engraver suitable for engraving type dies on stamps, one at a time, having a drive mechanism that moves the stamp horizontally, a suitable engraving laser with a vertical drive, and a control that causes the stamp and laser to move such that the laser beam performs a raster scan over the type die. The laser is turned on and off to transfer marking data to the type die that has been inputted into a memory in a controller.
Until the aforementioned laser engraver is widely available, the invention can utilize a fixture that can be used with existing laser engravers to individually engrave type dies affixed to stamps. The multiple cavity fixture accepts stamps of various sizes, keeps the type dies on the stamps oriented for engraving, detects the size or absence of stamps, and relays this information to a computer. The fixture can be used to make stamps in a batch mode, but engraving can be interrupted to finish a single stamp in two to three minutes.
In contrast to the prior art methods, the novel stamp finishing system of the present invention requires little manual labor and enables a customer to receive a custom stamp within approximately five minutes of the time a customer finishes inputting data. As noted above, conventional stamp finishing shops receive semi-assembled stamp bodies and components from stamp manufacturers, engrave the marking surfaces for each stamp according to customer specifications, and complete the assembly of the stamps. The novel stamp finishing system of the present invention takes fully assembled stamps which require only engraving of the type die and printing of the index label, and completes these two final steps in a fully automated fashion.
Most of the objectives of the invention can be realized utilizing a method that does not require a laser engraver. This method uses a light curable photopolymer that is illuminated through a photonegative to form a rubber-type die with raised markings. A single die cavity is used so that, after curing, the die is ready to be placed onto the platen of a stamp body, preferably, a self-inker. The making of a single die means that the cured rubber does not have to be cleaned and cut into individual dies. The back of the die remains tacky and can be adhered to a stamp platen without additional adhesive. Adhesion is adequate, but no so strong that the die cannot be removed and repositioned without damage. More labor is involved, but the time for a customer to receive a finished stamp is still less than about five minutes. Some overall labor can be saved by using a disposable die cavity.